Enrollment patterns in the upcoming academic year will shift for a dozen schools in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District as a result of altered school attendance boundaries.

Such changes often generate anxiety and fear among parents, but no one appeared at the board’s hearing on the issue this week to voice concerns about the proposal created by a committee of parents, teachers, district employees and community leaders two years ago.

“I think it’s a testament to the outreach we’ve done over the last 18 months and the great work that the attendance boundary committee did,” board President Heidi Dodd said in an interview Friday. “I think they really addressed the public’s concerns before the committee came to their final proposal. I think that (public) input was invaluable.”

With two members absent, the panel voted 3-0 Thursday night to approve the changes, including the addition of a sixth grade to Ronald Reagan Elementary School in the upcoming school year. The district plans to eventually expand most of its kindergarten-through-fifth-grade campuses to K-6 schools.

Attendance boundaries will be adjusted for eight elementary schools and four middle schools located in Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Lakeland Village and Horsethief Canyon. Schools that will not be affected are Cottonwood Canyon, Earl Warren, Elsinore and Tuscany Hills elementaries and Temescal Canyon, Lakeside and Elsinore high schools.

“I think this was a most well-thought out plan,” board member Susan Scott said.

Less than 10 percent of the district’s enrollment, which now stands at about 20,650, should be affected, according to district spokesman Mark Dennis.

Parents of children in affected schools will be given the flexibility to decide whether they want their children to change schools or stay put, officials said.

The changes stem from recommendations made by committee formed to study boundary realignment two years ago because of population shifts, the availability of campus space and odd boundary configurations. Some elementary school districts were split into two distinct sections. The new boundaries eliminate the latter problem.

“They’re all contiguous boundaries and they make sense,” said Assistant Superintendent Gregory Bowers, who oversees facilities.

In creating new map lines, the committee sought to minimize the effects on families by keeping neighborhoods within the same districts. They also strove to ensure an elementary school’s graduating class would not be split between two middle schools and that one middle school’s students wouldn’t be promoted to two different high schools.

However, those patterns could not be completely avoided.

For instance, Railroad Canyon Elementary students west of Interstate 15 and from the Grape Street apartments will go to Elsinore Middle School and Elsinore High, while those east of the freeway and north of Railroad Canyon will go to Canyon Lake middle and Temescal Canyon High.

“Nothing’s perfect, but this is as close to perfect that I think we could have gotten,” Bowers said.

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